A Close Look at Leaders in Rapidly Growing DRaaS Market

Seagate
Seagate EVault Cloud Resiliency Service offers both self-managed and provider-managed data protection and recovery services. Its DRaaS model provides real-time replication of system data, in addition to access during planned downtime. The company guarantees the availability of critical data within one hour of an outage, ensuring that you will be able to access systems even in the event of a disaster.
Strengths:
--Offers tiered storage to guarantee that most critical data can be retrieved as soon as possible during an outage.

--Additional storage can reach up to 15 percent more at no extra charge.

--Daily data integrity checking ensures system stability.
--Offers extensive language support.
Seagate uses a one-hour service-level agreement option that is compatible with any backup solution, mitigating the need for a secondary site. The services also support a number of Windows and virtual platforms, to protect data and applications, including Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2012; NetApp; Microsoft Exchange; SQL Server, File Server and SharePoint; Blackberry Server; IBM i and IBM AIX; Red Hat and SUSE Linux; and VMware.
Sungard Availability Services
Sungard AS has a multi-solution DRaaS service that includes Recover2Cloud, Managed Recovery Program and Enterprise Storage Replication. Its model is a managed service that includes customer-managed features for a more customizable experience. It offers both cloud and hosting services to tailor its disaster recovery service to customer needs.
Strengths:
--Offers integrated applications and data recovery management.
--Crash-consistent and application-consistent recovery for both virtual and physical environments ensure your data will be secure no matter what.
--An abundance of data backup and application recovery professional services are offered.
--Sungard AS sustains SSAE 16 (Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements) service organization control (SOC) 2, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), HIPAA and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 compliance.
Sungard AS works to strengthen an IT environment to guard against unwanted hybrid situations. Its provider-managed recovery testing aids in effective assessments, leading to customizable improvements. Sungard AS's holistic method to disaster recovery is adjustable for each client's recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), giving extensive flexibility and comprehensiveness.
Verizon
Verizon works with VMware, Microsoft, HP and Cisco to offer disaster recovery that is adaptable to clients' specific needs. The service is fully managed and allows failover to a completely functional environment in case of disaster. Verizon's data replication service ensures that the entire server is fully recoverable and will restore an operating system, data and applications onto a utility computing platform.
Strengths:
--Offers additional CPU and RAM for no additional charge.
--Extensive experience with business continuity and IT disaster recovery projects makes Verizon knowledgeable and helpful for clients.
--Virtual machine (VM) and related production data replication lets clients protect its emulated data and systems.
--Timely service fixes and responsive support services let clients solve problems immediately.
Verizon offers off-site failover and active/active configurations for applications that have native replication capabilities. In addition, clients have the option to use array-based replication for full protection of large numbers of virtual or physical servers.
VMware
VMware's DRaaS model is ideal for both private and public cloud hosting. VMware Virtual SAN, VMware vSphere Replication and VMware Site Recovery all support private clouds built by individual organizations, giving them a secure, independent and non-disruptive hosting and testing of important data. VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery is ideal for native cloud-based recovery and uses VMware vSphere Replication to generate asynchronous data replication, the company said.
Strengths:
--Offers 24/7/365 access to assistance during Severity 1 situations.
--Services have a 99.9 percent guaranteed uptime, giving clients nearly constant access to its data and applications.
--Services are priced in a transparent and comprehensible manner, making it easy for clients to understand what they're buying.
--Regulatory compliance, such as IOS 27001, SOC 1 (SSAE 16)/SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3 and HIPAA/HITECH are all supported through VMware vCloud Air.
VMware offers virtualization technologies that ensure that an entire system data is secure. The backup service allows for timely and efficient protection of your data, systems and applications. VMware's service also erases planned downtime during system maintenance. In case of disaster, VMware safeguards all mission-critical applications to avoid downtime and keep clients' businesses running without a hitch.
Windstream
Windstream's model focuses on fast, cost-effective data protection and recovery. All critical applications, servers and data are hosted in its cloud environment and can be up and running in mere minutes in case of a disaster. To guarantee clients' access to its data at all times, Windstream offers continuous replication, as well as self-managed options for testing and recovery.
Strengths:
--Its 2N standard data centers guarantee that main production infrastructures aren't affected by single failure points.
--Ensures that clients' data center infrastructure components and internal data center networks will be accessible 100 percent of the time.
--Offers incrementally priced VM replication to other clouds.
--Allows for up to 60 days of recovery operations within its data center.
Windstream offers both cloud-to-cloud recovery and server-to-cloud recovery, backing virtual and physical servers. Application-consistent recovery points are used to keep clients' key applications running at their best. Windstream also offers specialized options for EMC-powered and NetApp-powered data centers.